International organisations, smallholder farmers, indigenous and local communities are invited to submit to the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), at their earliest convenience but no later than 31 January 2003, their views on the potential impacts of Genetic Use Restriction Technologies (GURTs) on smallholder farmers, indigenous and local communities and on Farmers` Rights. The views submitted will be compiled in a document to be used for a meeting of the Ad Hoc Technical Expert Group on GURTs to be held on 19-21 February 2003, in Montreal, Canada. See http://www.biodiv.org/doc/notifications/2002/ntf-2002-113-gurt-en.pdf (which also contains a list of relevant documentation prepared by the Secretariat of CBD and FAO) or contact [email protected] for more information.

18/01/2003